Drawing for Mom
by JustMadman
Summary: A day in Momoko's life, as a mother. One-shot. Happy mother's day! Hope you guys enjoy!


Hi. I know. I have a ffic to update. And maybe an-almost-porn-ffic to update too. Today/yesterday's mother's day. So I thought I'd write something. There's no shipping and it's not PRed (yet?) so I'm not expecting much response to this ffic, but nevertheless, I hope you guys enjoy~

Note: I don't own MGLN.

Oh right. I almost forgot to share where I got this (in case you guys thought it was) story idea from, google up 'Mothers day japan'. I'm not kidding! I tried to share the links, by the way, which failed. made it so difficult, I gave up after 1/2hr of trying to share them.

Again, hope you guys like it!

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Momoko stared at Nanoha's bedroom door. A whine came, followed by a hush. Then a loud male "Go!"

A few minutes passed before the first slam on the table came.

And another.

Then the last.

And then a bunch of murmuring and whispering. The middle-aged lady sighed. It's been like this for the past few days.

It started about a week ago, when the matriarch of the Takamachi family woke up in the middle of the night to get a glass of drink. Upon passing by her youngest daughter's bedroom, she noticed the light was on from the small gap in the door and the floor. It was quiet, so she assumed her daughter was burning midnight oil for all the homework she missed out due to her new 'part-time job'. Worried, she knocked on the door to check on how Takamachi-junior was coping.

The only thing she caught though was a glimpse of her three children scribbling. It was too brief to catch what they were writing. As soon as the door creaked, the kids hid their papers. All she managed to catch was the pencils on the table and rustling of papers, somehow, very well hidden. She remembered immediately regretting letting her older two children, Kyouya and Miyuki, learn martial arts. They were practically ninjas! As for her youngest daughter, Nanoha, being a gifted mage, needless to say has adapted to being alert at all times.

"What are you children up to so late?" She crossed her arms and frowned. It was very seldom that her children would act so secretly around her.

"Nothing~" The teenage girl with glasses replied casually.

"Writing!" The older boy hurriedly said, with a hint of panic. What a lousy liar she has brought up, she thought.

"My letter to Fate-chan!" Her ten-year old responded with much enthusiasm.

As quick as lightning, all three pairs of eyes turned to each other. Despite the different emotions displayed earlier, their faces all shifted to the same expressions; anger. The oldest brunette cocked an eyebrow. Something was up, she thought.

Her children glared at one another, as if mentally shouting at each other. If they truly were, since her youngest was actually capable of doing so, their conversation (or argument) didn't last long. Kyouya then stood up and walked out, then Miyuki followed after, apologizing, "Sorry mom, I think Kyouya just had a bad day, don't worry about it." She said with a smile.

The next night, and the night after had been the same, her children being secretive, avoiding her questions, glaring at each other. And then it got worse, to the point they avoided her, and even quarrelled during the day, sometimes during breakfast, when she could hear them in the kitchen, sometimes they wouldn't even look at each other during dinner and kept typing on their phones! And her husband hadn't been doing anything about it! Just last night, when she was awoken by a shout from Nanoha's room, she hurriedly got out of bed, to be pulled back in by the patriarch. "Don't worry, he said. Kids will be kids, he said." Before snuggling her, and not letting her go.

Kids will be kids? This has never happened before! Fights never lasted for days! She thought she had raised her children well enough, she thought martial arts had taught them more discipline. And all her husband could say was 'kids will be kids'? What had happened to this family?!

Then a shout abruptly brought her back to reality. "No! I can't do it!" She recognized that voice, it was Miyuki. She has almost never heard that girl shout before!

"You've got to! There won't be any more time!" A child-like voice. Nanoha.

That's it. Momoko couldn't take it anymore. These fights have to stop. If she wasn't be able stop it, she was a failure of a mother! Taking a deep breath, she swung the door open.

"That's it! I've had enough of you three! Explain what's going on!" She exclaimed. She then turned to the teenagers.

Shocked by their mother's sudden loud voice, the kids jumped, barely hiding their papers this time. They looked at her blankly, clearly unwilling to own up anything. The woman by the door smirked inwardly for her little success. "Don't want to talk?! Fine! Go to your rooms! Now!"

Just like rats, they neatly packed their papers in a file and then scurried to their rooms and in their beds.

"What's up, honey? Did you really need to shout?" Shirou appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her body by her waist and swayed their bodies together. She leaned into the hug, allowing herself to relax. It comforted her, but it didn't help the headache she just gained. Her children had been fighting for days, and she couldn't do anything about it. And her husband, their father, clearly didn't care! Her family was falling apart and they didn't even know. What on Earth was happening? Where did she go wrong? Was she just overreacting? Had she been too lenient? Had she not spent enough time with them? What had she done to deserve this?!

The next day, she woke up later than usual. She couldn't sleep that night. Who could sleep through that? Correction, which mother could sleep through their night after a huge commotion like that? Clearly the rest of her family or the rest of the world did. Considering the children had already gone to school earlier than required. They were probably avoiding each other now. Momoko sighed. The day had only just started and she already felt exhausted. It was going to be a long day…

By the time she got to the café, it was already crowded, packed with her usual customers, and surprisingly, her old friends too! There was Janet, Tomoyo, Risa, Keiko, her high school best friends. Stunned by the 'new' faces in the café, a smile she never expected widened across her face. Upon realizing their friend had arrived, the customers stood up to give their old friend a hug.

"What brings you all here?" She asked everyone as soon as the hugging spree was over.

"Oh you didn't know?" Risa of them piped up.

"Shirou-san invited us over." Keiko continued.

"He said you seemed to be depressed lately," Tomoyo added. "So we came over to give you a surprise!"

Janet, who disappeared after the hug, returned with a pink box with white ribbons on it.

"Happy mother's day!"

A tear escaped. And then another hugging spree. "Thank you, everyone. It really made my day. I haven't felt so happy in such a long time!"

"Don't thank us, thank Mr. Takamachi over there," Keiko said.

"Mhmm, your darling husband, I don't know how, got our numbers and called us just this morning and begged us to come."

A cough from behind interrupted the conversation. "Beg? One does not simply beg. Especially not a Takamachi. We made a deal!" Shirou joined in. "A-and why did you tell her that?! She was-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he was silenced off with a peck on the cheek. Just when she thought all hope of this family was gone, her husband brought it all back. She truly loved this man. Now she that she no longer felt alone in this family, she was even more determined to work on this.

As if the man could read her mind, he returned the kiss and assured her, "Don't worry, you're not alone. We'll get through this," before getting back to the counter, he added. "You girls go enjoy yourselves, just be back before the lunch hour, honey. You know I can't do lunch without you! Love you!"

Once the group of middle-aged women was almost out of sight, Shirou turned the café sign from opening to close and followed the group from afar.

[Target has left the building, hurry! You've got two hours before lunch hour!]

A reply came in minutes. [On it, boss!]

Two hours flew by for Momoko. She returned to the café, looking refreshed, and ready to work… Until she noticed her children were actually in the café as well. Looks were thrown across the café, from the counter to the tables, from the tables to the counter. They all had this stern looks, as if they wanted to bash one another, or even worse, wanted one another dead! She could feel the tense atmosphere between the three of them. It was nerve-wrecking, she felt like a fight could break out in any minute. Panic rose, and she hurried to the kitchen to find herself a form of distraction from her beloved children. She simply wasn't ready to face this yet! She hadn't thought about how to deal with this!

It took a while for her to relax, all that kneading exhausted her. And by the time she was done with all the baking preparations for the next day, it was already six and it was time to close the café. Momoko dusted all the powder off of her and hung her apron before cleaning up the kitchen.

Footsteps were heard and the woman turned around to see who was there. A young look-alike brunette in a purplish pink dress leaned by the door. Her hair was out of place and her droopy eyelids seemed like she could fall asleep anytime.

"Mom, can I skip dinner today? I'm exhausted. I just want to sleep…" Nanoha came to the kitchen to ask.

"No, you're only ten, you cannot skip meals. And the sun hasn't even set yet." Momoko was afraid of where this was going.

"But-!"

"No buts, Nanoha." Momoko put the mop aside and knelt beside her daughter. "You shouldn't have been up so late last night in the first place. What were you doing anyway?" She couldn't resist the opportunity to ask.

Nanoha shuffled her feet and quickly looked away, avoiding eye contact. Momoko was getting tired of this. She was already trying her best to fix this, but clearly her kids refuse to help. That was then she decided she should just give up. Maybe Shirou was right, kids will be kids, they are teenagers, and Nanoha was hitting puberty after all. Maybe she should just give them time and eventually they would approach her for help…

Would they? What kind of mother was she if her children could not trust to confide in her? No, she could not think like that. If she crumbled, it would be over. Everything would be.

The older woman shook her head and sighed, "I know it'll take a little too long before I get started and finish cooking dinner, how about this, it's dinner time and it's a Sunday. The delivery services would be slow again like last time, remember?" Nanoha slowly turned her head to look at her mother, nervous where this was going and nodded slowly.

"I'll go to the convenience store and get us something. Is that ok?" She asked, forcing a smile. She had to stay strong, she had to appear reliable. Her children's fight should not affect her so badly, or how were her kids going to depend on her?

Her mini-look-alike's blue eyes shined as if that's what she had been aiming all along. "Ok, I want instant ramen then, that shrimp one I've wanted to try!" She said eagerly with, bobbing her head up and down. Odd child, just a minute ago she was exhausted and now she was excited over ramen… Did puberty do that to her too, she wondered.

She shoved her weird thoughts aside and stood up. "Alright, instant ramen, shrimp flavoured. Got it. Think the usual will be ok for the rest?" She should be glad her child was still talking to her normally, now that she thought about it. Despite the avoidance, her child still approached her for permission to skip a meal, and behaved like her usual self. It was a good sign, no rebelling, and honesty… Was it?

Nanoha nodded again, "I'll wait for you at home then. See you there!" And ran off to inform the rest. "Mom's buying ramen!"

[Target is now headed to store. Hurry!]

Two minutes later, a text came. [Not ready!]

Reluctantly, Momoko dragged herself out of the café after she finally cleaned up the kitchen. She loved cleaning the kitchen, but it was tiring. After not being able to sleep through the night, she was chased out of the café to catch up with her friends, bake and then clean up. It wasn't that she hated her life, but sometimes it was just too much to handle. And now, she just got sent to the convenience store to get dinner for the family. Being a mother was a full time job, she couldn't not do this simply because she was tired.

As she was walking, she turned at a corner, just a minute or two away from the store. Finally. Then she realized something was wrong. She looked around, but didn't seem to notice any anomaly. What was that feeling she was having? It didn't feel good, it didn't feel right.

"It's dangerous!" A young male shouted out.

A boy with dark blue hair in a black cloak appeared, with a staff in hand and the other seemingly aiming a shield, struggling to block a yellow glowing ball.

"Sorry, who're-Momoko! What are you doing here?" Chrono exclaimed.

Momoko stared. It took a while before her mind started working again. Right, her daughter works with this boy.

"I'm terribly sorry, ma'am. I thought we've had our barriers cover this area, it seems I have estimated wrongly. Are you hurt?" Chrono transformed out of his barrier jacket and tried to pick the woman up. Momoko fell backwards to the ground, shaking, with her eyes widened, speech

"Ma'am, are you ok?" Chrono tried again. "I'm really terribly sorry, the training station on the ship is under maintenance so Fate and I had to find somewhere to train."

By then, Fate arrived, noticing that Chrono no longer seemed to be in his barrier jacket. "What is it, Chr- M-m-momoko?"

Upon hearing her name, from a softer and gentler voice this time, she turned to look. "Fate-chan." She managed. The blonde in her barrier jacket transformed out as well and picked the middle-aged woman up.

"Are you alright, Momoko?" Fate asked, with worry written all over her face.

"Y-y-yes, yes, Fate-chan. I'm sorry, Chrono-san, I have never seen you in that before, I didn't recognize you earlier."

"Are you sure you're alright?" The blonde asked.

"Yes, I'm alright, Fate-chan." Momoko tried to smile, secretly squeezing her tightened fists behind her back, struggling to stop herself from shaking out of fear.

The boy and girl looked at each other sceptically. It was obvious she wasn't, and didn't want their help or bother them. But what could they do? Just in time, a message on Bardiche came.

[Sir, Lindy Harlaown is asking for you two to return home immediately. It seems an emergency has come up.]

"Ah, seems your mother is calling, why don't you take it? Don't worry I'll be fine on my own." Momoko was sweating profusely, yet she refused to receive aid from the two children before her.

Reluctantly, Chrono and Fate turned around and took off. Before they left, they took one last glance at the brunette. She was waving at them.

"I guess that's where Nanoha gets her bravery and stubbornness from." Chrono gave Fate a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, if her daughter could take it, so can her mother."

Fate looked down as they ran home. "I sure hope so, it was an honest mistake…"

[Target successfully delayed. Are you done yet?]

[Ready!]

Had her daughter been dealing with these kinds of things? All behind her back? That glowing yellow ball looked scary! And dangerous! Very dangerous… How could her daughter not be traumatized? Momoko was greeted by the cool air-conditioning. She had had enough for today. Too much had been on her mind. Anything nice would be good, even the coolness to escape the heat, even for a short while was better than nothing. Before she could even head over to the ramen section, she was stopped by someone.

"Hey, aren't you that popular mother of so many children?" The lady by the counter asked. What did that person just say? I only have three!

"Sorry, did I hear you right?"

"Yes, yes you did! You are the one everyone's been drawing. Take a look behind me, ma'am." The lady moved aside to reveal a wall of portraits, full of Momokos. In every portrait, the bottom said something and it made out 'Happy Mother's Day, mom! We love you!" If she looked a bit more carefully, most of them looked similar in drawing styles.

Three drawing styles to be exact.

"A few days ago, a child and two teenagers came by to ask if they could post their mother's day portraits here." The lady explained. Three children? Momoko chuckled to herself. So that was what the three kids have been up to. "We told them they could, but it was only one portrait per child or person. So for the next few days, up till today… Just a few minutes ago, actually, people have been requesting to post a portrait drawing of the same person, you, ma'am." She smiled.

Wait, so all these have been planned? For a whole week? Momoko remained speechless. So they have been drawing for the past few nights and asking friends and colleagues to submit this? So their fights weren't actual fights, but just disagreements in their plans? What were they thinking, worrying her like that!

At that point of time, Momoko broke. This was too much for her to digest. There was too much running through her mind. Without herself knowing, streams of tears flowed down her cheeks. All this time, this whole week! She had been worrying for nothing! Totally exhausted, her legs gave in and she dropped to the ground and cried in relief. Before the lady by the counter could help her, she noticed something by the entrance.

Quietly, a group of four entered with a cake and hands filled with gifts. From the looks on their faces, they were really excited to surprise this mother, however, didn't seem to expect her in tears. Hurriedly, the lady rushed to Momoko's side and gave the woman a pack of tissue and wiped her face with her, before picking her up and turning her around slowly.

Before she could recover she was greeted by a "Happy mother's day!" Nanoha, Shirou, Kyouya and Miyuki shouted loudly, face filled with smiles and pride. Momoko was a stuttering mess. As if the drawings in a convenience store wasn't enough!

Nanoha was the first to tackle her mother with a hug. "Thank you mom, for being understanding and letting me do what I want. I know I haven't been the best child, but I just want you to know, I love you a lot. I always will." She hugged her mother tightly once more before letting go.

Next was Miyuki, who gave brief hug. "Thank you mom for always worrying about us. Although you might not know it, but when you're tired, we care for you too."

It was then Kyouya's turn. "Happy mother's day, mom. You're the best mother in the world. Thank you."

Before Shirou could give the hug, Momoko lifted a finger. A sniff before she started, "And you knew about all these?" She managed to say, without her voice shaking or her mouth failing to follow her brain. She couldn't stop smiling.

"Yes… Yes, I knew." The grown man turned away to hide his face. He was a grown man, he couldn't blush. Blushing was for teenagers! But it was a side of him that Momoko loved.

"Oh come here, you!" Before he knew it, the middle-aged woman tackled him with a hug. And a peck on his chest. "Thank you, I love you."

It sucked to ruin the moment, but a cough broke the silence. "Excuse me, but my shift is ending soon, so if you don't mind, could you carry on your celebration elsewhere?" Pairs of eyes turned to the sweet counter-lady who was then sweating droplets.

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What do you guys think? Good? Bad? I hope I still get reviews... Until next time! :)


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